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RECONSTRUCTION, 



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SPEECH OF HON. 0. P. MORTON, 



IN THE U. S. SENATE, JANUARY 24, 18C8, ON THE CONSTITU- 
TIONALITY OF THE RECONSTRUCTION ACTS. 



Mr. President: If I had not been referred 
tu by my honorable friend from Wisconsin 
(Mr. Doolittle) in the debate yesterday I 
Bhould not desire to speak on this question, 
especially at this time. I fear that I shall not 
have the strength to say what I wish to. 

The issue here to-day is the same which pre- 
vails thronghont the country, which will be 
the issue of this canvass, and perhaps for 
years to come. To repeat what I have had 
occasion to say elsewhere, it is between two 
paramount ideas, each struggling for the su- 
premacy. One is, that the war to suppress 
the rebellion was right and just on our part; 
that the rebels forfeited their civil and politi- 
cal rights, and can only be restored to them 
upon such conditions as the nation may pre- 
scribe for its future safety and prosperity. 
The other idea is, that the rebellion was not 
Binful, but was right; that those engaged in it 
forfeited no rights, civil or political, and have 
a right to take charge of their State govern- 
ments and be restored to their representation 
in Congress just as if there had been no re- 
bellion and nothing had occurred. The im- 
mediate issue before the Senate now is be- 
tween the existing State* governments estab- 
lished under the policy of the President of the 
United States in the rebel States and the plan 
of reconstruction presented by Congress. 

When a surveyor first enters a new territory 
he endeavors to ascertain the exact latitude 
and longitude of a given spot, and from that 
can safely begin his survey; and so I will en- 
deavor to ascertain a proposition in this debate 
upon which both parties are agreed, and start 
from that proposition. That proposition is, 
that at the end of the war, in the spring of 
1865, the rebel States were without State gov- 
ernments of any kind. The loyal State gov- 
ernments existing at the beginning ©f the war 
had been overturned by the rebels; the rebel 
State governments erected during the war had 
been overturned by our armies, and at the end 
of the war there were no governments of any 
kind existing in those States. This fact was 
recognized distinctly by the President of the 
United States in his proclamation under which 
the work of reconstruction was commenced in 
North Carolina in 1865, to which I beg leave 
to refer. The others were mere copies of this 
proclamation. In that proclamation he says: 
And whereas the rebellion, which has been waged 
by a portion of the people of the United States 
against the properly constituted authorities of 
the Government thereof, in the most violent and 
revolting form, but whose organized and arm«d 



forces have now been almost entirely overcome, 
has in its revolutionary progress deprived the peo- 
ple of the ^tate of North Carolina of all civil gov- 
ernment. 

Here the President must be allowed to speak 
for his party, and I shall accept this as a pro- 
position a2;reed upon on both sides: that at the 
end of the war there were no governments of 
any kind existing in those States. 

The fourth section of the fourth article of 
the Constitution declares that "the United 
States shall guarantee to every State in this 
Union a republican form of government." 
This provision contains a vast, undefined 
power that has never yet been ascertained — a 
great supervisory power given to the United 
States to enable them to keep the States in 
their orbits, to preserve them from anarchy, 
revolution, and rebellion. The measure of 
power thus conferred upon the Government of 
the United States can only be determined by 
that which is requisite to guarantee or main- 
tain in each State a legal and republican form 
of government. Whatever power, therefore, 
may be necessary to enable the Government of 
the United States thus to maintain In each State 
a republican form of government is conveyed 
by this provision. 

Now, Mr. Pi'esident, when the war ended 
and these States were found without govern- 
ments of any kind, the jurisdiction of the 
United States, under this provision of the Con- 
stitution, at once attached; the power to reor- 
ganize State governments, to use the common 
word, to reconstruct, to maintain and guaran- 
tee republican State governments in those 
States at once attached under this provision. 
Upon this proposition there is also a concur- 
rence of the two parties. The President has 
distinctly recognized the application of this 
clause of the Constitution. He has recognized 
the fact that its jurisdiction attached when 
those States were found without republican 
State governments, and he himself claimed to 
act under this clause of the Constitution. I 
will read the preamble of the Fresideat's pro- 
clamation. 

Whereas the fourth section of the fourth article 
of the Constitution ol the United States declare! 
that the United States shall guarantee to every 
State in the Union a republican lorm of govern- 
ment, and shall protect each of them against inva- 
sion and domestic violence; and whereas the Pr^ 
sident of the United States la by the Constitution 
made Commander-lD-Uhief of the Army and Navy, 
as well as chief civil executive ofBcer of the United 
States, and Is bound by solemn oath faithfully to 
execute the office of President of the United 
btates, and to take care that the laws be faithfully 



.Mi??^s 



rse utC'l: anrt whereas the rel.c lion which has 
V'ecn waced bv a portion of «h<> i cople of the 
Inited St 'te«'aL'alnpt thn properly tor?tltu'cil 
Butlniritlcs of the Govcrniueiit liicroof in iho luos''. 
violent ami revoltintt form, hut whofe orpanljcj 
and armctl forces have now heen almost entirely 
overcome, has, iu Its revolutloriarv proure??, de- 
prived the people of the .Slate of North Carolina 
of all civil eovernment; ana whereof- it l>eoom»s 
necessary and proper to carrv out nrnl eulorca the 
obllfiatlons of the people of He Vnltod States to 
the people of North Carolina In se 'urint: them In 
the enjoyment of a republican form ol govern- 
uient. 

I read this, Mr. President, for the puipose of 
fliowiiic: that the Treeideut of the United 
States, in his polic)- of reconstruction, started 
out with a distinct i-ecognition of the ai'plica- 
bility of this clause of the Constitution, and 
that he based his system of reconstruction 
ujion it. It is true that he recites in this pro- 
clamation that he is the Cotmuander-in-chief 
ofthearmyof the United States; but at the 
same time he puts his plan of reconstrnoiiou 
not upon the exercise of the military jiowcr 
which is called to its aid, but on the execution 
of the euaranty provided by the clause of the 
ConstitTition to which I have referred. lie ap- 
points a Governor for North Carolina and for 
these other States, the oOice beins: civil in its 
character, but military in its eifects. This 
Governor has all the power of one of the dis- 
trict commanders, and, in fact, far fireater 
power than was conferred upon General Pope 
or General Sheridan, or any jreneral in com- 
mand of a distiicl; for it is further provided: 

That the military coramander of the dejiart- 
ment, and all officers »nd persons In the military 
and naval service, a'd and assist the said provl- 
f-lonal governor in carrying into effect this procla.- 
uation. 

We are then agreed upon the second propo- 
sition, that the power of the United Siates to 
reconstruct and guarantee republiean forms of 
government at once applied when these States 
were found in the condition in which they 
were at the end of the war. Then, sir, beintc 
agreed upon these two propositions, we are 
brought to the question as to the proper I'orra 
of exercising this power and by whom io shall 
be exercised. The Constitution says that "the 
Uiiited Stales shall guarantee to every State in 
this Union a republican form of government." 
By the phrase '"United States" liere is meant 
the Government of the United States. The 
United Slates can only act through the Gov- 
ernment, and the clause would mean precisely 
the same thing if it read "the Government of 
the United Slates shall guarantee to every 
Stale in this Ujiion a republican form of gov- 
eminent." r 

Tlicn, as the Government of the United 
States is to exetote this guaranty, the ques- 
tion arises, what constitutes the Government 
of the United States ? The President does not 
constitute the Government; the Congress does 
not constltnte the Government; the judiciary 
does not constitute the Government: but all 
three together constitute the Government; and 
as this guaranty ia to be executed by the 
Governtaent of -the United States, it follows 
necefparily that ili must be a Iccislative act. 
The President could not assume to eicecute the 
guaranty without assuming that he was iho 
United Stales within the meaning of ibut pro- 
vicion, wiltiout aswimine that he was the (iov- 
••rnm'Mit of the United States. Congress could 
not of iti-elf assume to execute the guaranty 
^ftivH aMruuut4( UiA^ it tvos llic Goveiumeut 



of the United States; nor conld the judiciary 
without a lilie assumption. The act must be 
the act of the Government, and therefore it 
must be a legislative act, a law passed by Con- 
gress, submitted t» the President for his ap- 
proval, and perhaps, in a proper case, subject 
to be reviewed by the judiciary. 

Mr. President, that this is necessarily the 
case from the simple reading of the Constitu- 
tion seems to me cannot be for a moment de- 
Died. The President, in assuming to execute 
this guaranty himself, is assuming to be the 
Government of the United Stales, which he 
clearly is not, but only one of its coordinate 
branches ; and, therefore, as this guaranty 
must be a legislative act, it follows that the 
attempt on the part of the President to execute 
the guaranty was without authority, and that 
the guaranty can only be executed iu the form 
of a law, tirst to be passed by Congress and 
then to be submitted to the President for his 
approval; and if he does not approve it, then to 
be passed over his head by a majority of two- 
thirds ia each House. That law, then, be- 
comes the execution of the guaranty and is 
the act of the Government of the United States. 

Mr. P.-esident, this is not an open question. 
I send to the Secretary and ask him to read a 
part of the decision of the Supreme Court of 
the United States in the case of Luther vs. 
Borden, as reported in 7 Howard. 

The Secretary read as follews: 

Moreover, the Constitution of the United States, 
as far as it has provided for an emergency of thlJ 
kin<l, and authorized the General Government to 
interfere in the domestic concerns of a State, has 
treated the subject as political in its nature and 
placed the power in the hands of that department. 

The fourth section of the fonrth article of the 
Constitution of the United States provides that 
the United .States shall g-uarantee to every State 
in the Union a republican form of government, 
and shall protect each of them against invasions; 
and upon the applieaMon of the Lecrislature or of 
the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be 
convened) against domestic violence. 

Under this article of the Constitution it rests 
with Contrress to decide what government is the 
establisled one In a State. For, as the United 
State's guarantees to each State a republican 
government, Congress must necessarily decide 
what govtrnraont is established In the State be- 
fore i', c>in determine whether it is republican or 
not. And when the Senators and Kepresentatives 
o^a State a'e admitted Into the councils of the 
Union, the authority of the government under 
which they are appointed, as well as its republi- 
can character, is recognized by the proper const i- 
lutloiial authority. And its decision is binding 
upoQ every other department of the Government, 
and could not bo questioned in a judicial tribunal. 
It is true that the contest in this case did not last 
long enough to brinir the matter to this issue; 
and as no Senators or Representatives wereelected 
under the authority of the Government of which 
Wr. Dorr was the head. Congress was not called 
upon to decide the controversy. Yet the right to 
decide le placed there, and not in the courts. 

Mr. Morton. In this opinion of the 
8u['rcme Court of the United States, delivered 
many years ago, the right to execute the gua- 
ranty provided for in this clause of the Con- 
Btitution, is placed in Congress and nowhere 
else, and therefore the necessary reading of 
the Constitution is conflrmeii by the highest 
judicial authority which we Lave. 

Mr. Johnsou. Do you read from the 
ojiinion dolivered by the Chief Justice? 

Mr. Morton. Yes, sir; the opinion deliv- 
ered by Chief Justice Taney. He decides that 
this I'ower is not judicial; that it is one of tbe 
high powers conferred upon Congress; that it 



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is not subject to be reviewed by the Supreme 
Court, because it is political iu its nature. It 
is a distinct eniirciation of the doctiine tliat 
this i^uarauty is uot to be executed by the 
President or by the Supreme Court, but by the 
Congress of the United States, in the form of a 
law to be passed by that body and to be sub- 
mitted to the President for his approval; and 
should he disapprove it, it may become a law 
by beiuq: passed by a two-thirds majority over 
his head. 

Now, I will call the attention of my friend 
from Wisconsin to some other authority. As he 
has been pleased to refer to a former speech of 
mine to show that I am not (luite consistent, I 
will refer to a vote given by him in ISOt on a 
very important provision. On the Ist of July, 
1864, the Senate having under consideration, as 
in Committee of the Wbole, "a bill to guarantee 
to certain States whose governmeuts have 
been usurped or overthrown a republican form 
of government," ^Mr. Brown, of Missouri, 
ollered an amendment to strike out all of the 
bill after the enacting clause and to insert a 
substitute, which I will ask the Secretary to 
read. 

The Secretary read as follows : 

That when the Inhabitants of any State have 
been declared in a state of insurrection ati,alnst ttio 
Uniied :states by proclamation of tho Vre.Mtlenr, 
by force and virtue of the act entltltd "jVu act 
further to proviilS for the colleciion of duties on 
imports, and for other jjurposes," approved July 
13, 1801, they si'iiU be, and are hereby declared to 
be, incapable of casting any vote lor electors of 
Pretident or Vice Presideni ol the United States, 
or of e'ecting tenators or Representatives in Oon« 
i^iess until sail insurrection i suid Sti'.te if sup- 
pressed or abandoned, and SitiJ Inhabitants have 
leturr ed to their otedience to the Gavevnn'ent of 
the United States, and until such return to oiicdi- 
ence shall be declared by proclamation of the 
President, issued hy virtue of an act of Congress 
hereafter to be passed, authorizing the same. 

Mr. Morton. The honorable Senator from 
Wisconsin voted for that in Committee of the 
Whole and on its final passage. I call atten- 
tion to the conclusion of the amendment, which 
declares that they shall be — 

Incapable of casting any vote for electors of 
Presioent or Vice President of the Unied States 
or of electing Senators or Eepresentali\ es in 
Congress until said iosarrection in said state is 
suppressed or abandoned, and said inhabitants 
have returned to their obedience to the Govern- 
ment of the United states, and until such return 
and obedience shall be declared by proclamation 
of the President, issued by virtue of an act of 
Congress hereafter to be passed, authorizing the 
same. 

Recognizing that a state of war shall be re- 
garded as continuing until it shall be declared 
no longer to exist by the President, in virtue 
of an act of Congress to be hereafter passed. 
I am glad to find by looking at the vote that 
the distinguished Senator from Maryland (Mr. 
Johnson) voted for this proposition, and thus 
recognized the docti-ine for which I am now 
contending: that the power to execute the 
guaranty is vested in Congress alone, and that 
it is for Congress alone to determine the status 
and condition of those States, and that the 
President has no power to proclaim peace or 
to declare the political condition of those 
States until he shall first have been thereunto 
authorized by an act of Congress. 

I therefore, Mr. President, take the proposi- 
tion as conclusively established, both by reason 
and authority, that this clause of the Constitu- 
tion can be executed only by Congress; and 



taking that as ostablishecl, I now proceed to 
consider what are the powers of Congress in 
tlic execution of the guaranty, how it shall 
be executed, and what means maybe employed 
for that purpose. The Constitution does not 
define the means. It does uot say how the 
guaranty shall bo executed. All that is left 
to the determination of Congress. As to the 
particular character of the means that must be 
employed, that, I take it, will depend upon the 
peculiar circumstances of each case; and the 
extent of the [lowcr will depend upon the other 
<luesiion as to what may be required for the 
I'urpose of maintaining or guaranteeing a loyal 
republican form of government in each State. 
I use the word "loyal," although it is not used 
in the Constitution, because loyalty is an in- 
hering qualification, not only in regard to per- 
sons who are to fill public oliices, but in regard 
to State governments, and we have no right to 
recognize a State government that is not loyal 
to the Government of the United States. Now, 
sir, as to the use of means that are not pre- 
scribed in the Constitution, I call the attention 
of the Senate to the eighteenth clause of sec- 
tion eight of the first article of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, which declares that: 
The Congress shall have power to make all laws 
which shall be necessary and proper for carrying 
into execution the foregoing powers and aU other 
liowers vested by this Constitution in the Govern- 
ment of the United States or any department or 
ofQcer thereof 

Here is a declaration of what would other- 
wise be a general principle anyhow: that Con- 
gress shall have the power to pass all laws 
necessary to carry into execution all powers 
that are vested in the Government under the 
Constitution. As Congress has the power to 
guarantee or maintain a loyal republican govern- 
ment in each State, it has the right to use 
whatever means may be necessary for that pur- 
pose. As I before remarked, the character of 
the means will depend upon the character of 
the case. In one case it may be the use of an 
army; in another case perhaps it may be sim- 
ply presenting a fiuestion to the courts, and 
having it tested in that way; in another case 
it may go to the very foundation of the Gov- 
ernment itself. And I now propound this pro- 
position: that if Congress, after deliberation, 
after long and bloody experience, shall come 
to the conclusion that loyal republican State 
governments cannot be erected and maintained 
iu the rebel States upon the basis of the white 
population, it has a right to raise up and make 
voters of a class of men who had no right to 
vote under the State laws. This is simply the 
ttse of the necessary means in the execution of 
the guaranty. If we have found after re- 
peated tri'als that loyal republican State gov- 
ernments — governments that shall answer the 
purpose that such governments are intended to 
answer — cannot be successfully founded upon 
the basis of the white population, because the 
great majority of that population are disloyal, 
then Congress has a right to raise up a new 
loyal voting population for the pirrpose of estab- 
lishing these gevernraents in the execution of 
the guaranty. I think, sir, this proposition is 
so clear that it is not necessary to elaborate it. 
We are not required to find in the Constitution 
a particular grant of power for this purpose; 
but we find a jreneral grant of power, and we 
find also another grant of power authorizing 
us to use whatever means may be necessary to 
execute the first; and we Unt} that the Supreme 



Court of the Uuited States has said that the 
judgment of Uou2;ress upon this question shall 
be conclusive; that it cannot bo reviewed by 
the courts; that it is a purttly political matter; 
and therefore the determination of Coufjress, 
that raising up colored men to the right of suf- 
frage is a means necessary to the execution of 
that power, is a determination which cannot 
be reviewed by the courts, and is conclusive 
upon the people of this country. 

The President of the United States, assum- 
ing that he had the power to execute this 
guaranty, and basing his proclamation upon 
it, went forward in the work of reconrtruction. 
it was understood at that time — it was so an- 
nounced, if not by himself, at least formally 
by the Secretary of State, Mr. Seward — that 
the governments which ho would erect during 
the vacation of Congress were to be erected as 
provisional only; that his plan of reconstruc- 
tion and the work that was to be done under it 
would be submitted to Congress for its approval 
or disapproval at the next session. If the 
President had adhered to that determination I 
believe that all would have been well, and that 
the present state of things would not exist. 
But, sir, tho Executive undertook finally to 
execute the guaranty himself without the co- 
operation of Congress. He appointed provi- 
sional governors, giving to them unlimited 
power until such time as the new State govern- 
inents should be erected. lie prescribed in 
his proclamation who should exercise the right 
of sutrrasrc in the election of delegates. And 
allow me for one momput to refer to that. lie 
says in his proclamation: 

No person shall be qualified as an elector, or 
fball be eligible as a member of such cr'nventi"n, 
unless he shall have previously taken and suIj- 
fcrlbeil tho oath of amnesty, as set torttiin tho 
President's proclamation of I>Iay 20, A. 1). 18U5— 

which was issued on the same day and was a 
part of the same transaction — 
Ard Is a voter qualified as prescribed by the con- 
Ftltution and laws ot the S'ateof North Carolina 
la force Immodlatsly before tho 20th day of IMay, 
A. D. ISSl. 

The persons having the right to vote must 
have the right to vote by the laws of the State, 
and must, in addition to that, have taken the 
oath of amnesty. The President disfranchised 
iu voting for delegates to the conventions from 
two hundred aud lifty thousand to three hun- 
dred thousand men. His disfranchisement 
was far greater than that which has been done 
by Congress. In the proclamation of amnesty 
he says: 

Tto followlnp: classes of persons are excepted 
from tho beneUts of this proclamation- 
He then announced fourteen classes of per- 
sons — 

1. All who are or ehall have been pretended 
civil or dlplomailo officers, or otherwise domostlo 
or forelf^ agents, of tho pretended confederato 
government. 

• ••»»*« 

i:?. All persons who have voluntarily partlel- 
pated In said rebellion, and tho estttnated valuo 
«jf whone taxable property is over twenty thou- 
Eacd dollars. 

And twelve other classes, estimated to num- 
ber at the least two hundred and lifty thousand 
or three hundred thousand men, while the dis- 
franchisement that hag been created by Con- 
gress does not extend perhops to more than 
forty-live thousand or fifty thousand persons 
at the furlhcBt. These provisional governors, 
under the authority of the President, were to 
tall conventions; they were to hold the elec- 



tions, and they were to count the votes; they 
were to exercise all the powers that are being 
exercised by the military commanders under 
the reconstruction acts of Congress. After 
those constitutions were formed the President 
went forward aud accepted them as being loyal 
and republican in their character. He author- 
ized the voters under them to proceed to elect 
Legislatures, members of Congress, and the 
Legislatures to elect Senators to take their 
seals in this body. In other words, the Presi- 
dent launched those Stale governments into 
full life and activity without consultation with 
or cooperation on the part of Congress. 

Now, sir, when it is claimed that these gov- 
erumeiils are legal, let it be remembered that 
they took their oritrin under a proceeding insti- 
tuted by the President of the Uuited States in 
the execution of this guaranty, when it now 
stands confessed that he could not execute the 
guaranty. But even if he had the power, let 
it be further borne in mind that those constitu- 
tions were formed by conventions that were 
elected by less than one-third of the white 
voters iu the States at that time; that the con- 
ventions were elected by a small minority even 
of the white voters, and that those constitu- 
tions thus formed by a very small minority 
have never been submitted to the people of 
those States for ratification. They are no 
more the constitutions of those States to-day 
than the constitutions formed by the conven- 
tions now in session would be if we were to 
proclaim them to be the constitutions of those , 
States without first having submitted them to 
the people for ratification. How can it be pre- 
tended for a moment, even admitting that the 
President had the power to start forward in the 
work of reconstruction, that those Slate gov- 
ernments are le-rally formed by a small mi- 
nority, never ratified by the people, the people 
never having had a chance to vole for them. 
They stand as mere arbitrary constitutions, 
(Stablished uot by the people of the several 
States, but simply by force of executive power. 

Aud, sir, if we shall admit those States to 
representation on this floor and in the other 
House under tliose constitutions, when the 
thing shall have got beyond our keeping and 
they are fully restored to their pelitical rights, 
they will then rise up and declare that those 
constitutions are not binding upon them, that 
they never made them; and they will throw 
them off, and with them will go those provi- 
sions which were incorporated therein, de- 
claring that slavery should never be restored 
aud that their war debt was repudiated. Those 
provisions were put into those constitutions, 
hut they have never been sanctioned by the 
people of those States, and they will cast them 
out as not being their act and deed as soon as 
they shall have been restored to political power 
in this Government. Therefore I say that even 
it be conceded that the President had the 
power, which he had not, to start forward iu 
the execution of this guaranty, there can still 
be no pretense that those governments are 
legal and authorized, and that we arc bound to 
recognize them. 

The President of the United States, in his 
proclamation, declared that those governments 
were to b^ formed only by the loyal people of 
tho-e States; and I beg leave to call the atten- 
tion of the Senate to that clause iu his procla- 
mation of reconstruction. lie says : 

And with authority to exorcise, within tho limits 
of said State, all tho powers necessary and proper 



to enable SHcb loyal people of the State of North 
Cffrolina to restore said htate to its coni>titullonal 
relations with the Federal Gcvernmont. 

Again, speaking of the army: 

And they are enjoined to abstain from In any 
■way hlnderinyr, Impedinf;, or discouraging the 
loyal people from the organizntlon of a Eitate 
government as herein authorized. 

Now, sir, so far from those State goveru- 
nients having been organized by the loyal peo- 
jMe, they were organized by the disloyal; every 
office passed into the hands of a rebel; the 
Union men had no part or lot in those govern- 
ments; and so far from answering the i)urpo3e 
for -which governmeats are intended, they 
failed to extend protection to the loyal men, 
either white or black. Tlie loyal men were 
murdered with impunity; and I will thank any 
Senator upon this floor to point to a single 
case in any of the rebel States where a rebel 
Las been tried and brought to punishment by 
the civil authority for the murder of a Union 
man. Isot one case, I am told, can be found. 
Those governments utterly failed in answering 
the purpose of civil governments; and not only 
that, but they returned the colored people to a 
condition of quasi slavery; they made them the 
slaves of society instead of being, as they were 
before, the slaves of individuals. Under vari- 
ous forms of vagrant laws they deprived them 
of the rights of freemen, and placed them un- 
der the power and control of their rebel mas- 
ters, who were filled with hatred and revenge. 

But, Mr. President, time passed on. Con- 
gress assembled in Decomber, 1865. For a 
time it paused. It did not at once annul those 
governments. It hesitated. At last, in 18G6, 
the constitutional amendment, the fourteeitth 
article, was brought forv/ard as a basis of set- 
tlement and reconstruction; and there was a 
tacit understanding, though it was not em- 
braced in any law or resolution, that if the 
Southern people should ratify and agree to that 
amendment, then their State governments 
would be accepted. But that amendment was 
rejected, contemptuously rejected. The South- 
ern people, counseled and inspired by the Dem- 
ocracy of the North, rejected that amendment. 
They were told that they were not bound to 
submit to any conditions whatever; that they 
had forfeited no rights by rebellion. Why, 
sir, what did we propose by this amendment ? 
By the first section we declared that all men 
born upon our soil were citizens of the United 
States — a thing that had long been recognized 
by every department of this Government until 
the Dred Scott decision was made in 1857. 
The second section provided that where a class 
or race of men were excluded from the right 
of suffrage they should not be counted in the 
basis of representation — an obvious justice that 
no reasonable man for a moment could deny; 
that if four million people down South were to 
have no suffrage, the men living in their midst 
and surrounding them, and depriving them of 
all political rights, should not have members 
of Congress on their account. I say the justice 
of the second clause nas never been success- 
fully impugned by any argument, I care not 
how" ingenious it may be. What was the third 
clause? It was that the leaders of the South, 
those men who had once taken an official oath 
to support the Constitution of the United 
States, and had afterward committed perjury 
by going into the rebellion, should bo made in- 
eligible to any office under the Government of 
the United States or of a State. It was a very 



small disfranchisement. It was intended to 
withhold jiQwur from those leaders by whose 
instrninuntality we had lost nearly half a mil- 
lion lives and untold treasure. The justice of 
that disfranchisement could not be disproved. 
And what was the fourth clause of the amend- 
ment? That this Government should never 
assume and pay any part of the rebel de^it; 
that it should never pay the rebels for their 
slaves. This was bitterly opposed in the 
North as well as in the South. How could any 
man oppose that amendment unless he was iu 
favor of this Government assuming a portion 
or all of the rebel debt, and iu favor of paying 
the rebels for their slaves? When the Demo- 
cratic party North and South opposed that 
most important, and, jjcrhaps, hereafter to be 
regarded as vital amendment, they were com- 
mitting themselves iu principle, as they had 
been before by declaration, to the doctrine that 
this Government was bound to pay for the 
slaves, and that it was just and right that we 
should assume and pay the rebel debt. 

This amendment, as I have before said, waa 
rejected, and when Congress assembled in De- 
cember, 1800, they were confronted by the fact 
that every proposition of compromise had 
been rejected; every half-way measure bad 
been spurned by the rebels, and they had 
nothing left to do but to begin the work of re- 
eonstruction themselves; and in February, 
18C7, Congress for the first time entered upon 
the execution of the guaranty provided for in 
the Constitution by the passage of the first re- 
construction law. A supplementary bill was 
found necessary in March, anotherouein July, 
and I believe another is found necessary at this 
time; but the power is with Congress. What- 
ever it shall deem necessary, whether it be in 
the way of colored sufi'rage, whether it be in 
the way of military power — whatever Congress 
shall deem necessary in the execution of this 
guaranty is conclusive upon the courts and 
upon the States. 

Sir, when Congress entered upon this work 
it had become apparent to all men that loyal 
republican State governments could not be 
erected and maintained upon the basis of the 
white population. We had tried them. Con- 
gress had attempted the work of reconstruc- 
tion through the constitutional amendment by 
leaving the suffrage with the white men, and 
by leaving with the white people of the South 
the question as to when the colored people 
should exercise the right of suffrage, if ever; 
but when it was found that those white men 
were as rebellious as ever, that they hated this 
Government more bitterly than ever; when it 
was found that they persecuted the loyal men, 
both white and black, in their midst; when it 
was found that Northern men who had gone 
down there were driven out by social tyranny, 
by a thousand annoyances, by the iusecurity 
of life and property — then it became apparent 
to all men of intelligence that reconslruclioa 
could not take place upon the basis of the 
white population, and something else must be 
done. 

Now, sir, what was there left to do? Either 
wc must hold these people continually by mili- 
tary power, or we must use such machinery 
upon such a new basis as would enable loyal 
republican State governments to be raised up; 
and in the last resort, and 1 will say Congress 
waited long, the nation waited long, experi- 
ence had to come to the rescue of reason before 
the thing was done — in the last resort, and as 



the last thins: to be clone. Congress determined 
to dis through all the rubbish— dii; tluouirh 
the toil and ilie f hUliutc sands, and iro down to 
the tttrnal rock, and there, upon the basis of 
the everlastinij principle ol' if|ual and exact 
jastice to all men, wc have planted the coluum 
of recoiiPtruction; and, 6ir, it will ariso slowly 
but 6urely, and *-ihe trate* of hell shall not 
prev.iil a^'ainst it." Whatever daniri-rs wo ap- 
prehended from the inirodueiion to the right of 
sull'rage of eeveu hundred thousand men, just 
emersied from slavery, were put aside in the 
presence of a t;rcater danircr. Why, sir, let 
me say franlily to my friend from VVisconsin 
that I np[>ro:>ched universal colored suflYage in 
the South relui tantly. Not because I adhered 
to the miserable dogma that this was the white 
man's (Jovernment, but because I entertained 
fears aliout at once entrusting a large body of 
men ju?t from slavery, to whom education had 
been denied by law, to whom tiie marriage re- 
lation had been denied, who had been made the 
most ahji'Ct slaves, wi'h political power. And 
»s the Senator has referred to a speech which 
I made in Indiana in 1805, allow me to show 
the principle that then actuated lue, for in that 
speech I said : 

In reitard to the quesUonof admlttlnsthe freed- 
men of the Southern ."-tatos to vote, while I ad- 
mlc lUe equal rlLthts of all men, and that In time 
all men will have the right to vote, without dis- 
tinrtlon of color or race, I yet believe that in the 
case of four million ol slaves, just freed from 
bi»ndai{0, there shoula be a period of probation 
and preparation before they are broui;m to the 
exercise of political power. 

Such was my feeling at that time, for it had 
not then been determiued by the bloody expe- 
rience of the last two years that we could not 
reconstruct upon the basis of the white popu- 
lation, and such was the 0])inioa of a great 
majority of the people of the North; and it 
was not until a year and a half after that time 
that Congress came to the' conclusion that 
there was no way left but to resort to colored 
eulfraire and sull'rage to all men except those 
who were disqualified by the commission of 
high crimes and misdemeanors. 

Mr. President, we hear much eaid in the 
course of this debate, and through the press, 
about the violation of the Constitution. It is 
said that in tbe reconstruction measures of 
Congress we have gone outside of the Consti- 
tution, and the remark of some distinguished 
statesman of the Republicau party is quoted to 
that ellVct. Sir, if any leading Republican has 
ever said so, he spoke only for himself, not for 
another. I deny the statement in toto. I in- 
sist that these reconstruction measures are as 
fully within the powers of the Constitution as 
any legislation that can be had, not only by 
reason, but by authority. And who are the 
men that are talking so much about the viola- 
tion of the Constitution, and who pretend to 
be the especial Iriands of that instrument? 
Tbe great mass of them, only three years ago, 
were in arms to overturn the Constitution and 
establish that of Montgomery in its place, or 
were thtir Northern friwnds, who were aiding 
and sympathizing in that undertaking. 

I had occasion the other day to speak of 
■what was described as a Constitutional Union 
man— a man living inside of the Federal lines 
during lliCwar.Fympalhizing with the rebellion, 
and who endeavored to aid the rebellion by iu- 
Blstingthatevery war measure for the purposcof 
eupi)n'-'sing it was a violation of the Constitu- 
tlou of the Unitca States. Now, these men 



who claim to be the especial friends of the 
Constitution are the men who have souL'ht 'o 
destroy it by force of arm?, and those throuiih- 
out the country who has'e given them aid and 
comfort. Sir, you will remember that once a 
celebrated French woman was beine dragged 
to tUe seallbld, and as she passed the statute oi 
liberty she exclaimed : ''IIow many crimt-s 
have been committed in thy name;" and I can 
say to the Constitution, how many crimes 
against lii)erty, humanity, and progress are 
being committed in thy name by these men 
who, while they loved not the Constitution and 
sought its destruction, now, for party purposes, 
claim to be its especial friends. 

My friend from Wisconsin yesterday com- 
pared what he called the Radical party of the 
North to the radicals of the South, and when 
he was asked the question by some Senator, 
"who are the radicals of the South," he said, 
"they are the secessionists." Sir, the seces- 
sionists of the South are Democrats to-day, 
acting in harmony and concert with the Demo- 
cratic party. They were Demosrats during the 
war who prayed for the success of McClellan 
and Pendleton, and would have been glad to 
have voted for them; and they were Demo- 
crats before the war, and the men who made 
the rebellion. These are the radicals of the 
South; and my friend from Wisconsin, alter 
all, is voting with the radicals. 

The burden of his speech yesterday was that 
the reconstruction measures of Congress are 
intended to establish negro supremacy. Sir, 
this x^roposition is without any fouudatioa what- 
ever. I believe it was stated yesterday by the 
Seijator from Illinois (Mr. Trumbull) that in 
every State but two the white voters regis- 
tere*! out-numbered the colored voters; and the 
fact that in two States the colored voters out- 
numbered the white voters is owing to the sim- 
ple accident that there are more colored men 
in those States than there are white men. Con- 
gress has not sought to establish negro suprem- 
acy, nor has it sought to estaljlish tiie suprem- 
acy of auy class or party of men. If it had 
sought to establish negro supremacy it would 
have been an easy matter by excluding from 
the right of sutfrage all men who had been con- 
cerned in the rebellion, in accordance with the 
proposition of the distinguished Senator from 
Massachusetts, (Mr. Sumner.) iujiis spa.eiLh at 
Worcester, in ISGo. He proposed to exclude 
ail meu who had been concerned in the rebel- 
lion and confer suffrage only on those who 
were left. That would have established negro 
supremacy by giving the negroes an overwhelm- 
ing majority in every State; and if that had 
been the oiiject of Congress it could have been 
readily done. But, sir, Congress has only 
sought to divide the political power between 
the loyal and the disloyal. It has disfran- 
chised some fifty thousand disloyal leaders, 
leaving all the rest of the people to vote. They 
have been enfranchised on both sides, that 
neither should be placed in the power of the 
other. Tbe rebels have the right to vote so 
that they shall not be tinder the control and 
power of the Union men only, and the Union 
men have been allowed to vote so that they 
shall not be under the control and power of 
the rebels. This is the policy, to divide the 
political power among those men for the pro- 
tect'on of each. Sir,"the charge that we in- 
tend to create a negro supremacy or colored 
State governments is without tiie slightest 



fouudation, for it would have been iu the pow- 
er of Cougress to have easily conferred each 
supremacy by simply exc)udiu<^ the disloyal 
from the right of siUfrage — a power which it 
had the clear right v^ exercise. 

Now, Mr. President, allow me to consider 
for a moment the amendment ollered by the 
Senator from Wisconsin, and ui>on which his 
speech was made, and see what is its effect — 
1 will uot say its purpose, Imt its inevitable 
effect — should it become a law. I will ask the 
Secretary to read the amendment which the 
Senator from Wisconsin has proposed to the 
Senate. 

The Secretary read as follows : 

Provided, nevertheless, Thiit upon an election Tor 
the ratification of any constitution, or of otHfers 
under ttio same, i)revlous to its adoption In any 
State, no person not havini? the quuUflcatlona of 
an elector under the constitution und laws of 
Buoh t^tate previous to the late reliotlion shall be 
allowed to vote, unless he sliall possess one ot the 
foUowinu; qnalitiuations, namely: 

1. He shall have served as a soldier in the Fede- 
ral army tor one year or more 

2 He shall have sufficient education to read the 
Constituiion of the United States and to subscribe 
his name to an oath to support the same; or, 

3. He shall be seized in his own right, or in the 
lisjht of his wife, of a freehold of the value of 
$250. 

Mr. Morton. Sir, these qualifications are, by 
the terms of the amendment, to apply to 
thosu who were not authorized to vote by the 
laws of the State before the rebellion — in other 
words, the colored men. He proposes to allow 
a colored man to vote if he has been in the 
Federal army one year, and he proposes to 
allow a rebel white man to vote, although he 
has served in the rebel army four years! He 
proposes that a colored man shall not vote un- 
less be has suflicient education to read the 
Constitution of the United States and to sub- 
scribe his name to an oath to support the 
same; whereas he permits a rebel white man 
to vote who never heard of A, and does not 
know how to make his mark even to a note 
given for whiskey. [Laughter.] ' 

Again, sir, he proposes that the colored man 
shall not vote unless he shall be seized in his 
own right or m the right of his wife of a free- 
hold of the value of $350, a provision which, 
of course, would cut off nine hundred and 
ninety-nine out of every thousand colored men 
in the Soitth. The colored man cannot vote 
unless he has a freehold of $350, bitt the white 
rebel who was never worth twenty-five cents, 
•who never paid poll-tax in his life, never paid 
an honest debt, is to be allowed to vote. Sir, 
what would be the inevitable effect of the 
adoption of this amendment? To cut off such 
a large part of the colored vote as to leave the 
rebel white vote largely in the ascendency and 
to put these new State governments there to 
be formed again into the hands of the rebels. 
Sir, I will not spend longer time upon that. 

My friend yesterday allisded to my endorse- 
ment of the President's policy in a speech in 
1865. I never endorsed what is now called the 
President's policy. In the summer of 1SG5, 
when I saw a division coming between the 
President and the Republican party, and when 
I could not help anticipating the direful con- 
sequences that must result from it, I made a 
speech in which I repelled certain statements 
that had been made against the President, and 
denied the charge that by issuing his procla- 
mation of May 29, 1865, he had thereby left 
the Republican party. I said that he had not 



left the Republican party by that act. I did 
show that the policy of that proclamation was 
even more radical than tha: of Mr. J^incoln. 
I did show that it was more radical even than 
the Winter Davis bill of the summer of 1804. 
But, sir, it was all upon the distinct uuder- 
standiug that whatever the President did that 
his whole policy or action was to be submitted 
to Congress for its consideration and decision; 
and, as I before remarked, if that had been 
done all would have been well. I did not then 
advocate universal colored BullVago in the 
South, and I have bcfwre given my reasons for 
it, and in doing that I was acting in harmony 
with the great body of the Republican parly of 
the North. It was nearly a year after that 
time, when Congress i)asscd the constitutional 
amendment, which still left the question of 
sull'rage with the Southern States, left it with 
the white people; and it was not until a year 
and a half after that time that Congress came 
to the conclusion that we could not execute 
the guaranty of the Constitution without rais- 
ing up a new class of loyal voters. 

And, sir, nobody concurred in that result 
more heartily than myself. I confess (audi 
do it without shame) that I have been edu- 
cated by the great events of the war. The 
American people have been educated rapidly; 
and the man who says he has learned nothing, 
that he stands now where he did six years ago, 
is like an ancient mile-post by the side of a 
deserted highway. We, Mr. President, have 
advanced step by step. When this war began 
we did not contemplate the destruction of 
slavery. I remember well when the Crit- 
tenden resolntiou was paissed, declaring 
that the war was uot prosecuted for conquest 
or to overturn the institutions ot auy State. 
I know that that was intended as an assurance 
that slavery should not be destroyed, and it 
received the vote, I believe, of every Republi- 
can metnber iu both houses of Congress; but 
in a few months after that time it was fouud by 
the events of the war that we could not pre- 
serve slavery and suppress the rebellion, and 
we must destroy slavery — not prosecute the 
war to destroy slavery, but destroy slavery to 
prosecute the war. Which was the better? 
To stand by the resolution and let the Union 
go, or stand by the Union and let the resolu- 
tion go? Congress could not stand by that 
pledge, and it was "more honored in the 
breach than the observance." Mr. Lincoln 
issued his proclamation of emancipation, 
setting free the slaves of the rebels. It was 
dictated by the stern and bloody experience of 
the times. Mr. Lincoln had no choice left 
him. When we began this contest no one 
thought we would use colored soldiers iu the 
war. The distinguished Senator sitting by me 
here, (Mr. Cameron,) when in the winter of 
1861 he first brought forward the proposition, 
as Secretarj of War, to use colored soldiers, 
was greatly in advance of public opinion, and 
was thought to be visionary; but as the war 
progressed it became manifest to all intelligent 
men that we must not only destroy slavery but 
we must avail ourselves of every instrumen- 
tality in our power for the purpose of putting 
down the rebellion, and the whole country ac- 
corded in the use of colored soldiers, and gal- 
lant and, glorious service they rendered. In 
iSGi a proposition was brought forward in this 
body to amend the Constitution of the United 
States by abolishing slavery. We do not think 
that this is very radical now, but it was vi^vy 



radical then; it TTas the preat measure of the 
ac;c, and almost of modern limes, and it was 
finally passed; au amendment setting free 
every human being wit'iin the limits of the 
United States. But, sir, vfe were very far then 
from where we are now. All will remember 
the celebrated Winter Davis bill, passed In 
June, 1864, which took the power of recon- 
elruction out of the hands of the Presideut, 
where it did not in fact belong. 

I refer to Mr. Lincoln; hut if that bill bad 
passed it would perhaps have resulted in the 
destruction of this Government. We can all 
see it now, althoufch it was then thout^ht to be 
the most radical measure of the times. What 
did it propose? It proposed to prescribe a 
plan, to take effect when the war should end, 
by which these rebel States should be restored, 
•l" refer to that bill simply to show how we 
have all travelled. It re(iuired but one condi- 
tion or guaranty on the part of the South, and 
that was that they should put in their consti- 
tutions a provision prohibiting slavery. It re- 
quired no other guaranty. It required no 
equalization of representation; no security 
against rebel debts, or against payment for 
emancipated slaves; and it confined the right 
of suflVage to white men. But it was thought 
to be a great step in advance at the time; and 
so it was; but events were passing rapidly, and 
in l.%5 the rresldent came forward with his 
proposition, and I am stating what is true 
from an examination of the documents when I 
eay that, but for the want of power with the 
President, his scheme in itself considered was 
far more radical than that of the Winter Davis 
bill; but events were rapidly teaching the 
statesmen of the time that we could not rccon- 
Btruct upon that basis. 

Still, Congress was not prepared to take a 
forward step until the summer of 1860, in the 
passage of the constitutional amendment, 
which we now regard as a half way measure, 
necessary and vital as far as it went, but not 
going far enough. That was rejected, and we 
were then compelled to go further, and we 
have now fallen npon the plan of reconstruc- 
tion which I have been considering. It has 
been dictated by the logic of events. It over- 
rides all arguments, overrides all prejudices, 
•verrides all theory, in the presence of the 
necessity for preserving the life of this nation; 
and if future events shall determine that we 
must go further, I for one am prepared to say 
that I will go as far as shall be necessary to the 
execution of this guaranty, the reconstruction of 
ttiifi liepublic upon a right basis, and the suc- 



cessful restoration of every part of this Union. 

Mr. President, the column of reconstruction, 
as I before remarked, has risen slowly. It has 
not been hewn from a single stone. It is com- 
posed of many blocks, painfully laid up and pu^. 
together, and cemented by the tears and blood 
of the nation. Sir, we have done nothing ar- 
bitrarily. We have done nothing for punish- 
ment — aye, too little for punisnment. Justice 
has net had her demand. Not a man has yet 
been executed for this great treason. The 
arch fiend himself is now at liberty upon bail. 
No man is to be punished; and now, while pun- 
ishment has gone by, as wc all know, we are 
insisting only upon security for the future. 
We are simply asking that the evil spirits who 
brought this war upon us shall not again come 
Into power during this generation, again to 
bring upon us rebelliou and calamity. We are 
simply asking for those securities that we 
deem necessary for our peace and the peace of 
our posterity. 

Sir, there is one great difference between this 
Union party and the so-called Democratic party. 
Our principles are those of humanity; they are 
those of justice; they are those of equal rights; 
they are principles that appeal to tlie hearts 
and the consciences of men; while on the other 
side we hear appeals to the prejudice of race 
against race. The white man is overwhelm- 
ingly in the majority in this country, and that 
majority is yearly iucreased by half a million 
of white men from abroad, and that majority 
gaining in proportion from year to year until the 
colored men will finally be but a handful in 
this country; and yet we hear the prejudices of 
the white race appealed to to crush this other 
race, and to prevent it from rising to suprem- 
acy and power. Sir, there is nothing noble, 
there is nothing generous, there is nothing 
lovely in that policy or that appeal. How does 
that principle compare with ours? We are 
standing upon the broad platform of the Declar- 
ation of Independence, that "all men are 
created equal; that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain inalienable rights; that 
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness." We say that these rights are 
not given by laws; are not given by the Con- 
stitution; but they are the gift of God to every 
man born in the world. Oh, sir, how glorious 
is this great principle compared with the in- 
human — I might say the heathenish — appeal 
to the prejudice of race against race; the en- 
deavor further to excite the strong against the 
weak; the endeavor further to deprive the weak 
of their rights of protection against the strong. 



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